Intimate Memories of Hollywood and Europe by the Famous Film Star— So Strangely the Fatal Woman Both in the Lives of Her B Lovers and in Her

What a pathetic group we were! Living in the heart of what the world believed was the most . mhmmlb sad- j|Hg[ Bl glittering, carefree colony of all. we were the fl dest. Weaving from philosophy to religion, trying in vain to comfort our souls. As if in answer to a prayer my mother arrived. b9Hv She had just returned from Normandy, where weeks earlier she had gone to buy a chateau.. I had hoped Rudy and I could spend our vacations there, but now I could not even bear to look at the v f^yT' ~* ty/^%^-V '"’il^ pictures of the castle and think of what might I a have been. I tried to sink deeper into seclusion, but my diplomatic mother worked against this. We soon moved back into my Beverly Hills house and life began to crowd in on me with a kind of ven- geance and challenge which I could not ignore. I still had a year’s contract to fulfill with Paramount. But I showed as plainly as I ftfuld 3 %*V? v „a *%/-^/a>" :^ {^4> that Ino longer wanted it. I believed that I had reached the place in my lonely torment where I could not work! When Sidney Kent, the head.of Paramount,amount-. came to see me I told him that I had no incen- tive to continue my career in pictures. I had enough money, I had tasted fame. I wanted nothing the world could offer and I was thinking seriously of going into a convent. • ¦ alone—forgot- •*"'¦\ “Just let me live >s|v ten,” I asked. “I have too much sor- row and I feel my life is finished.” jmj m must above your sor- l\W\v\» “You rise row, Pola,” Sidney said in his quiet, 'y' \ kI charming way. “We sympathize S?u I "> with you. Our hearts have cried Prince Serge with you in your trouble. You know I all this. But apparently you have Mdivani and Pola ¦ forgotten that you are a trouper, l % 'JViII Negri. A Photo- I/ that you have to go on with the b? , Afl £• show',* graph Taken When because you are the greatest L> M| yyT^i and most glamorous star in the mo- Serge Pursued Pola go ¦ tion picture industry. You must to Europe in His on! I looked into his intense eyes—- Successful Attempt and then I turned away. It seemed WS-MM'.-if fIWB 1 to Make Her His that for the first time in months I Wife. saw my reflection in a mirror. I w’as a living skeleton, w'ith slight resemblance to “the most glamorous star!” I caught my breath and turned swiftlv from the glass. my picture as yet unfin- Sidney Kent had been my friend since my first ished. brought his tragic days in Hollywood. Now he had told me, in ef- confidence of his love for fect, the very same thing a Gypsy had said years Greta Garbo. before when I was numb with grief. The Gypsy’s I had know Stiller and words had been: “Go back to your work and give i;«k Greta when they first to the world the talent which has been proved you came to Hollywood, when possess!” he had been Greta’s The meaning w’as the same. Sidney’s words Svengali—she. his Trilby. were different. I wondered—should Igo on with Maurice had believed from the show? 9S|i|B&fe *‘ the beginning in Greta’s When Sidney Kent left me that afternoon he talent, and had used his had secured my promise to think over what he had own in developing her in- said, to try to want to go on. to a Hollywood favorite. Now I often prayed for courage to face my ob- But the moody director stacle. to overcome it. And it wasn’t long before could not hold Greta—- I was back at the studio. and# without her he was I'll never forget the delightful greetings of my fellMp" - : ¦• ; ci ushed. friends -and how James Hall, my leading man in “I am the kind of man who can love only one (Continued On Page 11) Vv' J Pola Negri at thr Time She Met and Mairied Prince Serge l Mb- woman," he explained. Mdivanl, of Somewhere in Georgia, Russia. Their Short-Lived ‘Tola. I only live to die! Romance F.nded in Divorce. v It will be so pleasant not to worry about life’s dis- A woman tip-toed in and Ho whined, then illusions.” stood beside me. he lay beside me, Stiller felt that his days were counted and he en- “Rudy . . . Rudy!" she covered his nose vied everyone was whispered. who with his paws and released into the other She fell on her knees and cried as a human world. wept. I listened to her crying, being cries with So. I her get up and he and spoke the watched leave hollow, hopeless same language of grief. quieter, if I could ever know the and wondered moans. Rmlnlpli Valentino, the “Great l over" of the Screen, We could understand all blessed relief of tears. Kabar knew as Pell in l.ove With Pola Negri at First Sight, Rut the sorrows, all the suf- life, known, My every dream I had ever was well as I did that Died Before They Could Be Married. fering. broken, but there were no more tears to shed. My his master was Eleanora Duse, the was could longer heart bleeding, yet I no weep. gone, that no one else could ever take his place. great actress, was also a woman who loved I don’t remember how I that long, long only passed When I came hack the next day, Kabar had one man. night, or when I left the throbbing quiet of the died of a broken heart. p, -I* mausoleum, but words I had read somewhere there “In all m3' life I have only loved Gabriele d’An- came rock me: I went every day to Rudy’s crypt, sat there nunzio," she had once confided. to in silence, for “As on the sea of Galilee the Christ is whisper- hoping in vain some communion with Now her words came back to me with new pnin. ing peace.” his spirit. “The love I gave him was so selfless." she had A beautiful water garden of willows and palms I refused to see or to talk with anyone. said. “I was content to ask nothing of life, only and flowers mirrored the niarble building where Thousands of sympathetic letters, truck loads the jov’ of loving him. For his sake I would have Rudv slept. I tried to fasten my mind on the of flowers were sent to me daily. Gifts reached renounced everything the world could give me. I of the quiet scene, and find solace in re- me from all parts of the world. Rut every offering loved him for himself and I didn’t care who or “Where the Christ is whispering peace.” of condolence opened my wound wider and dug what he was. I shall love him beyond the grave, Early that morning I went to Falcon’s Lair more deeply into the quick. and if there is such a thing as eternity my spirit and tried to say good-by forever to the lost shrine I was so weary of a lustreless life, without hope will find his. We cannot lose those we love.” of all our hopes. I went into the little chapel, where of surcease from grief. The sight of my home, I tried to find consolation in memories. I re- once Rudy had said we would go each day to pray where there were so many reminders of Rudy, be- membered what Duse had said about the premoni-

together. came unbearable and I soon moved into a hotel, tion of her death, of her hope to die. . .and when As T knelt before the altar, staring dry-eyed at where only a few friends were ever admitted to my Maurice Stiller told me of his wish to go on, my the crucifix, a strange thing happened. seclusion. hope that life would soon release me increased. I- heard a moan. Something pressed against These friends came to me because they too had John Gilbert came to me with his torn dreams, m<- I turned to find Rudy’s dog, Kabar, his sorrows, and in all kindness they spread them out and I.welcomed him because he deepened my sor- Thi> Mausoleum In the Hollywood Cemetery WVrf Doberman pinscher. His wet miserable eyes looked before me. row. He, too, had loved and lost. He did not want Valentino's Coffin Rr*ts and Which Tola Would Visit into mine. Maurice Stiller, director of “Hotel Imperial," to live! to Recapture Fond Memories. Till-: AMERICAN IVITKI.)